


even your shadow leaves at noon

by thejester



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: F/M, Mutual Pining, Other, because lewis and vivi never broke up so arthur's not comfortable making a move, even if vivi wants him to, mentions of alcohol cannibalism and bowling, oh also the arthur/vivi doesn't happen, so basically there's a lot of, takes place before Ghost, the cannibalism is just a joke though this isn't a hannibal crossover, the ot3 is hinted at but doesn't actually happen here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27382471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thejester/pseuds/thejester
Summary: Arthur and Vivi take a short break from looking for their missing friend Lewis and confess a few things to each other while getting wasted on tequila.  Somehow this resolves pretty much nothing but at least they're having fun.  (Kind of.  Okay, they're sad and drunk but they're sad and drunktogetherand that's basically like having fun, right?)
Relationships: Arthur/Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 52





	even your shadow leaves at noon

**Author's Note:**

> I apparently wrote this right after Hellbent came out and forgot to post it? Whoops?? It's been so long I can't remember what inspired the title but it sounds cool so I'm keeping it. 
> 
> Anyways I watched the new video (which was AMAZING) and I remembered that I had a Mystery Skulls WIP. I went to go dig that out and realized that not only did I have a road trip WIP, I had a whole completed story just sitting in my hard drive. Go figure. Hope everyone's doing well and that this story can be a small distraction from the American election going down tonight.

Arthur gets what he wants in dribs and droplets; his success can be measured in fractions, percentages: never whole, never fully satisfied. He wants and he knows he’ll never _receive_.

He should be grateful for whatever he does get, but right now? 

Right now, he’d rather take 0% instead of a half. Sometimes, nothing is better than a half-life fulfillment. 

Which is all very poetic and philosophical, but it’s _really_ not helping him think of a way out of this.

“This” being him, and Vivi, and a big bottle of tequila they’d mostly killed, just the two of them. 

“This” being Vivi, in his lap, giggling softly and running her fingers through his hair like a dream. They’re sitting in the back of the van, parked next to a nowhere stretch of road and doors open to the seemingly endless desert night. The stars are so bright out here without the city lights to drown them, and the sky looks wide enough to swallow them whole, van and all. It’s a night full of cricket song and possibility. Arthur keeps his eyes on the heavens, and he doesn’t look down at one of the loves of his life, 50% of his romantic aspirations, all right here in his lap.

 _Let’s just be young for one night,_ she’d said, her hand closing the laptop and his map of everywhere Lewis wasn’t. _Let’s forget what we can’t remember and what we remember too well_ went unsaid, but understood between them. He got it, he did. Her life in parts was now defined by what was missing, and who was he to judge if she wanted to take back a little control in whatever way she could? Memory problems? Get blackout drunk. Checks out. 

(On the rare nights when Vivi was busy with work and Arthur had fixed all the cars in his queue as much as he could, he’d go bowling. With his prosthetic hand. For no other reason but to prove he could. 

Because his life’s a joke, he rarely gets strikes. Usually, he gets split after split, pins wobbling on each side of a void he created but never falling when he needed them to.) 

Oh god, he’s so drunk. Why is he such a lightweight. He’s making metaphors out of bowling pins. 

How did Vivi talk him into this. 

Except that’s not really a mystery. Even on a good day Arthur had never been able to say no to Vivi. Not the first day when she’d rolled her van to a stuttering stop in front of the shop, all big eyes and dead transportation, and not since then. And today? Today wasn’t a good day. Today was a tequila day. 

He’d had no way of knowing that fixing up her van would lead to midnight haunted house visits and escaping cultists and fucking caves that were just a hazy impression of green and terror, which _made no sense_. 

But it was also the start of rambling conversations in the Peppers’ restaurant that went far past closing time, until Mrs. Pepper threw rags at the three of them and told them that if they were going to stay after hours they might as well help out. She’d try to sound gruff but there’d be hot chocolate with all the fixings waiting for them when they were done. (Lewis never managed to drink it without getting whipped cream somewhere improbable. Grass was green, water was wet, there was a smear of liquid sugar on Lewis’ eyebrow or earlobe or one time, the back of his neck. Arthur still wasn’t sure how he’d managed that.)

And there were video game competitions, and making fun of Lewis and Vivi for being such goddamn nerds (and them ribbing him right back), weekend road trips and picnics in the sunlight, and those were their golden days. That was when the world had felt soft and malleable in their young hands, a string of moments where the only things to fear were the intangible ghosts they chased. He hadn’t known it then, but his happiness had peaked in high school.

Which was just pathetic. He didn’t even play football. 

And then he’d fallen in love with not one but _both_ of them, and that? That was just a mess.

“I think my bowling scores are trying to tell me something,” he admits to Vivi because it’s better than anything else he’s thinking about.

“Yeah? Whazzat?”

“No clue. But like, the pins. They’re misbehaving, you know?” She did not know. Arthur tried to explain. “They’re all supposed to go together, like follow the leader. But not all of them fall. Because they’re dicks. They mock me, Vivi.”

She considers this. A minute later, she slaps his shoulder. “I’ve got it. I know their secret message.”

“Yeah?”

Her face is so close to his, and she’s staring intently at him. “Do you really want to know, Arthur Kingsman? What the pins are trying to say?” She’s so serious.

“I- I guess?”

“They’re saying,” and she leans closer, intimate, like she’s going to whisper a sweet nothing in his ear. The back of his neck heats up. “That you… need… PRACTICE!”

He jolts and she falls against him, snickering. They look at each other and then they’re both laughing like lunatics.

“Really, Vivi? That’s your, your, sage advice? Your witchy powers are saying I need to bowl more?”

“Nonbeliever! Do you dare doubt the witchy power?”

He loses it, and he’s still laughing when he notices their shift in positions.

Vivi was close, chuckling slightly but mostly resting her head on his chest to listen to his heart. It was the two of them, Mystery wasn’t even around. Their dog had rolled his eyes amusedly(?) at their debauchery and fallen asleep in the front seat. 

And of course, Lewis isn’t here.

Just like that, the levity’s gone like it was never there in the first place. 

Because Lewis isn’t here. 

Lewis _isn’t here_.

Arthur can’t. He can’t. 

Vivi’s hands move and somehow they’re in his hair, then cupping the blade of his jaw. His eyes sting. He loves her so much, all the time but especially in this moment, blue hair haloed by nameless galaxies and laughter still clinging to the corners of her mouth. He allows himself this, just for this single, stolen second, and then he’ll figure out how to untangle their limbs. One moment of being cradled in her tender hands, palms warm as sunlight. 

Arthur opens his eyes and the curl in Vivi’s lips is a promise, the glint in her eyes an invitation. She’s not like him at all. No opportunity slides by if she can help it. The expression on her face is familiar in a distant way, like something he’d seen in a painting but never in real life. The memory niggles at him but he can’t place it. Her lips part and there’s a name forming between her teeth, and he knows, knows it’s… ~~his.~~

Awful.

It hits him.

Of course. The realization shakes the air out of his lungs. 

She’s looking at him the way she looked at Lewis. 

There’d been signs, he and Vivi had spent so much time together lately. Him, looking for his other best friend, and her just enjoying any haunted locale they’d come across. He’d just… ignored them. Told himself he was imagining things. 

“Arthur,” she breathes out, voice melodic as damnation, and her face is close to his. Somehow, even with the inevitability of it crawling up his spine, it still takes him by surprise. His hands tighten on her waist (when did they get there?) and he…

This isn’t fair. 

She’s lovely. Arthur’s never met a woman who could compare to Vivi, and he knows he never will. 

Vivi draws closer still, and he’s never been able to deny her. 

Until now. 

(And truthfully, he’s always been able to deny himself).

Arthur scrambles blindly as casually as he can while tipsy and holding onto Vivi. His hand hits the tequila bottle and he gently pushes it into her hands. “T-time for another round!” He doesn’t know what else to do. 

The moment evaporates like shadows and mist facing down the high noon sun. 

She looks at the tequila like she doesn’t know how it got there, but she shrugs and then her mouth is wrapped around the bottle as she drinks straight from it. Not that Arthur would know. He’s staring at the sky again like it’ll give him guidance.

But his life isn’t the Lion King. No dead ancestors show up to kick his ass into gear and he’s left to fumble through this alone. 

Which at this point means getting a girl drunk so he can avoid taking advantage of her. He’s… not sure where that puts him, morally speaking. 

Part of him wonders if it’ll be easier if she doesn’t remember that he’s rejecting her tonight. 

Arthur seriously considers the fact that he might be a terrible person. 

Vivi coughs and beams at him, so he smiles back as best he can. He takes a small sip from the bottle and pretends it’s more than what he took, ready to hand it back to her at a moment’s notice. 

Arthur will keep the alcohol flowing as much as he can. He can’t give Vivi anything else right now but even he can manage that.

They’re quiet for now, passing the bottle between them. Eventually, one of them will break the silence. There’s something about the darkness that makes everything said feel like a safe truth, a confession without consequences. These are the hours where they can talk about things they’d never say in the daytime.

It’s only a matter of time. 

Vivi starts them off. “Some days,” she says, apropos of nothing, “some days I hate this Lewis guy.”

Arthur’s chest goes cold. “ _What_.”

“Because. Because, where did he go? Poof, he’s just. Gone. And, and people tell me I should remember him, but it’s like. It’s like when vegans tell you about what foods to eat?”

“Um.”

“It works for them and that’s, that’s great. But maybe it’s not for me, right? Maybe I want to eat steak without feeling guilty that I’ve killed a cow. Maybe I want to just live my life without remembering that cow.”

“You… want to eat Lewis?”

Vivi laughs. “Yes, Arthur, I’ve developed a taste for cannibalism. Can’t believe you thought those burgers I made were actually beef.” She takes one look at the horror on his face before she bursts out laughing. 

“Vivi, not funny. I have a very strict no-people diet.” 

“Kidding, kidding. I guess I just mean that I hate when people tell me what to do. Or how to feel. These are my feelings, and fuck you if you, you think they’re… What’s the word.”

“Not valid?”

“Yeah! I can’t miss what I don’t remember, and when everyone keeps telling me about Lewis it’s just. It feels like a prank that everyone’s pulling on me.”

“Aw, Vivi, no.” Arthur tightens his embrace a little. 

“I know, okay?” She says this directly into his chest, words coming out muffled by his shirt. “I know it’s not a prank. It just doesn’t feel real. I have nothing to connect their words to. And then people hate me about it. Like I’m the one who’s lying.”

“Bastards,” Arthur says with feeling. 

“Bastards,” Vivi agrees, taking another swig. She drinks deeply this time, and Arthur thinks he’s not the only one who’s aiming for a blackout.

It’s terrible, but it makes him feel better. 

Vivi polishes off the bottle. Arthur almost gets caught up in the mood. “I…” He starts, but he trails off. _I_ what _. I hated Lewis a little too? He was always beautiful and perfect, just like you, Vivi, and I loved and hated you both for it because I was happy you were happy but it was like standing outside someone’s window while they celebrated their birthday because they forgot to invite you? So, unhealthy at best and really fucking creepy at worst._

Nah. Arthur’s drunk, but he’s not _that_ drunk. 

Vivi burrows deeper into his chest and folds his hand into hers. “You stay put,” she murmurs and yeah, okay, he can do that. He gets the feeling that she’s not just talking about right now, in the van.

He cups the back of her head delicately and pretends he doesn’t feel the moisture on his shirt. 

Maybe it’ll be different, once they’ve found Lewis (because they will, goddammit, they _have_ to). He hopes it’ll be different, and for now that’s all he’s got. That and an empty tequila bottle and a lap full of his best friend. So it could be worse. 

Later, Vivi unfolds herself and sits up. She stays put as they sip water for their alcohol scorched throats while the immutable stars stretch over them like a canopy. 

In the morning they wake up curled around each other, clothing intact and heads aching. They don’t remember all the choices they made the night before, but that’s fine.

This time, they know they’re the ones who made them.

**Author's Note:**

> And then they never touched tequila ever, ever again for the rest of their lives. :)
> 
> Seriously though, if there's one thing college taught me it's that you should remember to drink water when you're drinking or you Will Regret It In The Morning. Stay hydrated, stay safe, and we'll all get through this. Thanks for reading!


End file.
